Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Notes from the cold

- 7 degrees today. WHOA, THAT IS COLD. Cold even by northern standards.- My car's engine hesitated in a scary way I've never heard before it started up.- Slow ride to work this morning. I occasionally got slightly tripped up on ice at stoplights but my car didn't go into a tailspin at any point, thank God.- Just want to remind some drivers: a stoplight that has stopped working means you treat it like a four-way stop NOT drive right through like it's green.- Rolling blackouts are not fun.- I don't know when I've seen this town so deserted at 5 p.m. The drive home during the usual rush hour seemed more like a drive home at midnight.- This weather makes me appreciate creature comforts. Electricity is the life-blood of our comfortable lives - cable TV, thermostat-controlled heat, refrigerated food, the Internet, microwaves, hair dryers. I miss that stuff when it's gone.- 7 degree weather + no electricity = dangerous combination.